


Nerd Fight

by lightace



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Multi, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-05-01 09:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5200505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightace/pseuds/lightace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ashley walks in on a fight between Liara and Sam and immediately regrets it when she's drawn into it against her will.</p>
<p>Or, Ashley Williams desperately needs a drink.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nerd Fight

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I'm sorry. I laughed too much at that title to not use it. I'm a five year old I'm sorry.
> 
> 2\. I actually had to type the liara/ash/sam relationship in manually??? I'm disappointed in you fandom >:(
> 
> 3\. I know everyone shows up early to college classes but just suspend your disbelief a bit for this or assume that Ashley was just really really early
> 
> 4\. Ashley is a lit major and I will accept no arguments unless they come with a five page essay explaining your reasoning

Ashley realizes as soon as she opens the door that she has made a terrible mistake showing up to class early. The second day of class and the two biggest nerds in the class are already at each other’s throats. That must be a new record.

Before Ashley can slip away, hide out in the stairs until it’s closer to class to start, one of them notices her. The curses that ring in Ashley’s mind would make her father blush.

“Excellent timing, Ashley,” the asari, called Liara maybe, says. “Settle this argument for us.”

Obediently, Ashley slinks closer, albeit reluctantly and with the hope that they’ll go back to arguing and forget about her. “Are you guys sure I’m even going to know what you’re both talking about?”

Liara ignores her, having returned to her glaring match with Sam. Why had she decided to take math this semester again? Oh yeah, because she’d put it off for a year already and her advisor had stared her down until she’d agreed to finally complete her one and only math class.

“It has nothing to do with math, actually,” Sam replies to Ashley’s question, and somehow that doesn’t make Ashley feel any better about the situation.

But she sighs and says morosely, “Okay, hit me.”

“What’s your sexuality?”

Ashley bites her tongue in surprise, hard. She curses under her breath, both at the sudden pain and the question, and exclaims, “What in the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“Liara thinks you’re straight, but I say otherwise. I’ve seen you with Jane Shepard.” Sam cocks an eyebrow suggestively, and Ashley wonders if she’s trapped in some sort of hellish nightmare. She needed to stop reading horror novels before bed.

“I would move to Antarctica before I dated Jane,” Ashley says bluntly, and Sam’s brow wrinkles as Liara preens. They’re like a pair of teenagers, honestly.

“But, but!” Sam says loudly, jabbing a finger in Ashley’s direction. “Wanting to date someone and thinking they’re attractive are not mutually exclusive, so you technically haven’t proven anything.”

Semantics, Ashley groans inwardly. Liara nods agreement, staring expectantly at Ashley as if she can pluck an answer out of her mind if she tries hard enough. Ashley wonders what she’d done to anger God to prompt this torture.

“Why exactly is this an argument you two are having?” Ashley asks, but they both ignore the question, Sam flushing slightly.

“Please just answer the question, Ashley,” Liara says, and Ashley groans and rubs a palm over her face.

At least the room was otherwise empty, meaning that nobody was here to see her utter embarrassment. Small mercies.

“Fine,” she finally groans, and Sam and Liara simultaneously perk up and give her all their attention. It’s more than a little disconcerting, and Ashley shifts uncomfortably under their combined scrutiny. “I’m bi, though I’ve never actually dated a girl.”

“Ha!” Sam yells directly into Liara’s face, who looks decidedly sullen. “Told you so, T’Soni! No way someone like that is straight!”

Ashley blinks. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asks with a surge of aggression. Sam pales visibly. “Well?” It comes out almost as a growl, and Sam seems to shrink down several inches into herself. Next to her, Liara looks uncomfortable.

“J-just that you’re way too attractive to waste on men,” Sam replies in a voice that’s almost a squeak. Ashley stares dumbly at her.

“You’re very bad at this, Sam,” Liara mumbles as Ashley stands there completely stupefied.

Sam turns a glare on Liara. “Hey, I’m better with numbers than words; cut me some slack.”

“You’re flirting is abysmal.”

“One: that wasn’t my intention. Two: like you’re any better!”

Liara flushes. “My flirting skills have nothing to do with this situation.”

“What skills? This is probably the only conversation you’ll have with her the whole semester! You should be thanking me, actually.”

“For what?” Liara suddenly seems intimidating, the opposite of her usual meek persona. Sam looks like she’s regretting her words now as Liara looms threateningly over her, despite them both being close to the same height. “I’m the only who brought her into this, if you’ll recall. Technically, _you_ should be thanking _me_.”

Ashley has a headache.

“That doesn’t mean you’ll ever talk to her again,” Sam says, seeming to have regained her nerve.

“Oh, like you will?”

“Maybe.”

“And krogans will fly.”

Finally, Ashley pulls herself together and steps between them, forcing them apart where they’d practically been snarling nose-to-nose. “What in the hell is your problem?” she snaps, glaring between the two of them.

“Sam thinks you’re attractive and wants to go out with you,” Liara says blankly as Sam blurts, “Liara was moping because she thought you were straight just like most girls she fancies.”

Ashley frowns. She needs a drink.

“One of you send me the notes,” she says blandly and turns and leaves.

That afternoon, she receives two apologies along with the requested notes, unexplainedly in one email. Jane laughs and almost chokes on her sandwich when Ashley expresses her confusion; Miranda has to thump her on the back to stop her coughing.

“They’re dating, didn’t you know?” Jane says hoarsely, obediently letting Miranda confiscate the rest of her lunch and giving Ashley a broad shit-eating grin. “How do you feel about poly relationships, Ash?”

Ashley _desperately_ needs a drink.

**Author's Note:**

> there's so much time between me posting stuff on here, I feel like my writing style is completely different in each story
> 
> also, I gently bully Ash in everything I write with her because I love her dearly


End file.
